06-26-2003, 12:36 PM
|
#1 (permalink)
|
|
Junkie
|
Give me back my Imaginary Land!
From the Salt Lake Tribune
Quote:
Rolly and Wells: Ad Flap Is Stranger Than Fiction
By Paul Rolly and JoAnn Jacobsen-Wells
Salt Lake Tribune Columnists
Southern Utah was all abuzz recently after Cedar City Mayor Gerald R. Sherratt began running notices in local newspapers about the discovery of ancient Viking artifacts in a cave near the city.
The so-called Himmeslk Papers accompanying the artifacts disclosed that Vikings sent by King Eric of the Blodosk line discovered a tiny island in the South Pacific on April 1, A.D. 956. Eventually, the coral-based island became unhinged, having been loosened over the centuries by earthquakes. A tsunami carried it to the American continent and the wave, several thousand feet high, threw it hundreds of miles inland, where it landed in what is now Cedar City.
An explorer sent by President Polk in 1845 discovered the settlement. Eventually, the Vikings were tricked by a treaty that deeded the settlement to the United States. They never were paid for the land.
After it was evacuated, the settlement was razed, extinguishing all evidence of its existence. The recent discovery in the cave presented a problem for the United States because calculations determined that in today's dollars, the government would owe the Blodosks $88.7 billion.
An agreement was made with the Blodosk heirs that, in lieu of payment, they could retake ownership of Himmeslk (aka Cedar City), for 10 days every year and celebrate their kingdom with an annual Himmeslk festival beginning on the 1,048th anniversary of the settlement's founding: April 1 (note the date), 2004.
Cedar City officials hope the annual festival will become a tourism and economic development boom rivaling the wildly successful Shakespearean Festival and the Utah Summer Games.
But after the ads began to run, Sherratt and his brain trust received a unexpected reaction.
Calls and letters from St. George residents laid claim to the treasure found in the cave. Several St. George residents said their ancestors had been part of the settlement and had owned some of the artifacts. Others linked the story to the Book of Mormon.
When Sherratt explained the whole story was made up to promote the festival, the St. George residents accused him and other officials of a cover-up. (St. George is near La Verkin which, as you will recall, banned the United Nations from its boundaries.)
As a result of the St. George reaction, Sherratt said in a recent Cedar City newsletter that the festival will no longer be advertised in the St. George media. It will continue to be advertised in Cedar City, where residents can take a joke.
|
Pffft, some people. |
|
|